In the flying of a model airplane powered by an engine, a handle is employed by the operator to control the maneuvers to be performed by the plane. The handle has attached to it a pair of control lines, the latter being connectable to a pivoted bellcrank member so that upward and downward movements of the handle are translated into corresponding upward and downward movements of the plane's hinged elevator so that the plane can be made to climb or dive. When one attaches the control lines of such a commercially available handle to a powered model airplane in order to fly it, repeated flights (wherein the plane is put through certain prescribed maneuvers to test its responsiveness) of the model are made. The plane or airship is then trimmed (adjusted) according to the results of these test flights. If the airship responded too quickly to handle movements, weight was added to the nose region of the ship to slow down its response time. Conversely, if the ship was sluggish (too slow a response time), then weight was added to the ship's tail.
While the above noted procedure for trimming a model plane is simple, it is too unreliable in maximizing the maneuverability capabilities of a well-designed stunt or precision-aerobatic plane. Thus, a plane could be balanced properly aerodynamically, but a too fast or a too responsive control system would make the plane "appear"tail heavy. Adding noseweight to such a plane would be compromising its performance in order to obtain a proper control response or "feel". This illusion is a common occurrence when flying model aerobatic or combat planes that are attached to a U-shaped control line.
If the control system could be slowed down, the plane could be made to "feel" right to the plane's operator without changing the plane's center of gravity, i.e., adding weights either to the nose portion or the tail portion of the plane. The inventive present handle, to be described in detail hereinbelow, provides means for adjusting both the rate of response of the controls of the airplane as well as the force required to operate such control lines so that adjustments can be made on the ground or in the air, during flight, to achieve the maximum maneuverability capabilities of that model plane.